Corsair Aces of VF-17, "The Jolly Rogers"

Ira Cassius "Ike" Kepford

Ira Cassius Kepford was born on 29 May 1919 in Harvey, Illinois, son of
George and Emma Kepford. He was a star halfback at Northwestern
University, where he joined the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1941. He was
honorably discharged from the Reserve on 29 April 1942, and accepted an
appointment as a Naval Aviation Cadet. Kepford earned his wings at
Corpus Christi, Texas and Miami, Florida on 5 November 1942, and was
assigned to VF-17, the famous "Jolly Rogers," the following
January.

He was one of the original hellions of this famous
squadron,
and was confined to quarters for ten days for mock dogfighting a P-51
right above the city of Norfolk. After training, the squadron arrived
at New Georgia in the Solomons in late October, 1943.

Battle of the Solomon Sea

On the Nov. 11, 1943 strike at Rabaul (also known as the
Battle of the Solomon Sea) Kepford downed four enemy aircraft, for
which he was awarded the Navy Cross.
Flying cover for the carriers in Roger Hedrick's flight, he lit into a
gaggle of Kates. Flying through Bunker Hill's intense AA, he
downed a Kate only 1,000 yards from the ship. Low on fuel, he started
back to base when he spotted six unescorted Vals. Making the most of
the opportunity, he quickly downed three of the slow, nearly helpless
dive bombers. During his firing run on a fourth Val, he ran out of ammo
and realized he was practically empty of fuel. Ike radioed for a course
and permission to land on a carrier. Bunker Hill took him
aboard, happy to honor one of their flying defenders. Even the
distinguished Capt. Ballentine was pleased to serve Ensign Kepford a
cup of coffee. After a relaxing half-hour, Kepford took off in his
re-fueled and re-armed Corsair. He racked up four kills and eleven
hours of flight time that day.

Leading a division on a Jan. 27 escort over Rabaul, Kepford
destroyed two Zeros that were attacking another division.

On January 29, Kepford led his wingman, "Teeth" Burriss, in an
attack on 12 Japanese fighters over Rabaul; he scored four kills, and
was awarded a Gold Star for this action. Kepford and Burriss made up
half of a Roving High Cover
mission; the other two planes had aborted. As the bulk of the American
strike/escort force flew in at about 15,000 feet, a dozen Zeros at
24,000 lurked above them. Ike and Teeth got in first, and in textbook
series of dives, overhead firing passes , and recoveries, they both
shot down four Zeros.

Only a few of the uncoordinated Zeros were even able to
engage the regular escorts. As
Lee Cook noted in his authoritative history of VF-17, The
Skull & Crossbones Squadron: VF-17 in World War II, Kepford and
his mates were the top guns of their day, feared by the Japanese
fighter pilots who described them as "attacks on us by wolves."
This book is comprehensive and includes:

With ten aerial victories, he was the Navy's leading ace at that
time. That evening, the CO of VF-17, Tom Blackburn chewed them out (!?)
for recklessness and over-confidence. He scored two more the next day
on a emergency scramble to Rabaul. Another Zero on Feb. 3.

Escape over Rabaul

The mission set for Feb. 19, 1944 was typical for the fliers of VF-17
that month: 20 planes on a strafing mission to Rabaul. Butch Davenport
led the division; Ike was number 3. They took off at 0800, northwest
towards Rabaul. Kepford's wingman soon developed engine trouble and was
forced to return. Kepford was ordered to turn also back; he turned
south, but kept rubbernecking and shortly spotted a lone Japanese Rufe
seaplane. Although he was alone, Kepford dived down and opened up. The
six .50's shook the Corsair and rippled holes in the enemy plane. As he
pulled out of his dive, Kepford glanced back and saw the floatplane
crash into the water. An easy kill behind him, Kepford turned south for
home, radioing "Hog 29 here. Scratch one. Returning to base."

But then he saw many, many dots, high above him and in between him
and Bougainville. He hoped to remain inconspicuous, but four Zeros
peeled off to attack him. Unwilling to fight the whole group, he turned
north to escape them, but the four pursuers came on fast, with their
tremendous altitude advantage. As the lead Zero came on fast and opened
fire, Kepford decided to "go for broke." He dropped his flaps and
landing gear and nosed down until he was skimming the waves; as the
Zero roared over him, he pulled his Hog's nose up and opened fire. The
Zero's stabilizer crumpled under the snapshot, and the plane crashed
into the waves. As Kepford pulled in his gear and flaps, the remaining
Zeros bracketed him . . . he was facing 3-to-1 odds, low and slow, and
he was heading back in the direction of Rabaul.

The other three Zeros spread out behind him, boxing him in, and
continued to gain. Tracers streaked by! It was time to use the newly
installed water injection "War Emergency Power" WEP, a temporary boost
to the Pratt & Whitney R-2800 engine. The Jap planes stayed with
him, scoring some hits on the F4U. He was really trapped at this point,
unable to turn because of the Zeros behind, and forced to continue
speeding north, while not gaining appreciably. Slowly, he began to pull
away, but the WEP started to over-heat the engine. He got out of range
and eased back on the throttle a bit, disengaging the WEP.

Kepford had to make his move now! He cut across the path of the port
Zero. The Japanese plane dropped to wavetop level, opened fire, and
sharply turned, trying to turn inside Kepford. At which point the
Zero's left wing caught a wave top, and the plane cartwheeled across
the ocean surface, disintegrated, and sank. The other two Zeros were
left behind as Kepford dashed for home, landing on fumes in his fuel
tank. He struggled out of his plane, pale and exhausted. His flying
suit and shoes were soaked through with sweat. As the tension of the
nerve-wracking four hour mission lifted, he shook all over and tears
streamed from his eyes.

Honors and Medals

With 16 confirmed kills at the end of February, Kepford was
still the Navy's top ace, a distinction he retained until Alexander Vraciu went wild on June 19.
Kepford returned to the States in March of 1944, and was assigned to
Fleet Air Command at Alameda, California. In June, he was transferred
to VF-84. In December, he was attached to the Staff of Commander Fleet
Air, West Coast, where he served the remainder of WWII. In his five
months of combat duty, Ira Kepford earned two Navy Crosses, the Gold
Star, the Silver Star, three Distinguished Flying Crosses, the Air
Medal, Unit Commendation to VF-17, and the American Defense Service
Medal.

Postwar

Kepford retired from the Navy with the rank of Lieutenant Commander
on 1 June 1956. He worked for Rexall Drug Stores afterwards, rising
quickly to become president of the company's eastern division.

Edward Sims, Greatest Fighter Missions, Harper and
Brothers, 1962 - includes a fuller version of Kepford's Feb. 19 "Escape
from Rabaul" mission, along with many other Navy and Marine ace stories

Roger Hedrick

No Exec was closer to his Commanding Officer than
Roger Hedrick was to Tom Blackburn, and no other XO shot up his CO's
aircraft.

Relationship with Tommy Blackburn

Together, the two officers made VF-17, the famed "Jolly
Rogers," operate as a cohesive team. Hedrick completed flight school in
1936, as part of the Navy's Aviation Cadet program, which supplemented
the Navy's thin ranks of naval aviators in the late 1930's. The two men
first worked together at the Miami Naval Aviation training school in
1941, and when Blackburn organized VF-17 in December of 1942, he
promptly selected Hedrick as his Executive Officer.
He served with the "Jolly Rogers" squadron for its whole combat career.

Ondongo

Originally they had planned and trained to be a carrier-based
squadron, working with Chance-Vought to iron out the problems with the
Corsair's bouncy landing gear, poor visibility, and other 'minor'
issues. While VF-17 did qualify for carrier operations with the F4Us,
the Navy high command decided to deploy them on land, where they could
take advantage of the Marines' logistical support and spare parts. They
set up their base at Ondongo, meaning "Place of Death," on New Georgia
in the mid-Solomons on October 27, 1943. This was just in time for the
landings at Torokina, near Empress Augusta Bay on Bougainville.

November 1

Hedrick flew his first combat mission and scored his first kill on November
1. He took up VF-17's fourth flight of eight planes, to provide top
cover for the landings. Before reaching Torokina, sharp-eyed Hedrick
spotted several specks, 'bogies', where no Allied planes were reported.
As his radio was out, he rocked his wings to signal the attack, but no
others in his flight spotted the Japs. He closed in on the Jap leader,
got within range, aimed for the Zero's wing root, and flamed it. The
remaining Zeros scattered and headed for the deck. Now Hedrick's flight
mates dived after them, but the Japanese pilots' well-executed vertical
scissors maneuvers kept the Corsairs at bay.

November 8

On November 8, Hedrick led
VF-17's third mission of the day, an eight-plane flight on CAP over
Empress Augusta Bay. Two planes aborted early, leaving six circling
over the area for about an hour, when the command ship radioed
"Bogies!" They swung southwest in a full-power climb. In minutes, he
spotted about two dozen Zeros, covering fifteen Vals. He promptly gave
chase with his 4-plane division, ordering two to provide high cover.
Hedrick was astonished to see the more numerous Zeros respond to his
attack by going into a defensive Lufbery circle, while the Vals retired
to the north. With his initial altitude energy advantage, he planned to
'boom-and-zoom' the Lufbery, making repeated firing runs. During the
ensuing dogfight the three 2-plane sections kept their integrity.

Hedrick and his wingman, Mills Schanuel, blasted
the Japs on their first firing run; Hedrick's went into a cloud,
Schanuel's flamed. They chased some Zeros northward, and became briefly
separated during a series of head-on battles. Hedrick shot up several
Zeros, and saw them streaming "big buckets" of fuel, but no flamers.
The pair soon joined up and returned safely.

The 2nd section, Anderson and Chasnoff, opened up
on a Hamp, and broke up the Lufbery on their first run. The pair stayed
together for six more passes, but with no more hits. They also were
pulled north, only to be bounced by several Zeros. Chasnoff's tail was
badly chewed up, but these two also made it back to Ondongo.

Cordray and Cunningham stayed at 29,000 feet high
cover until another group of Zeros went by, then they dived into the
fray below. By then the Lufbery circles had broken up, and Zeros were
all over. Cunningham got a flamer, which they followed down long enough
to confirm the kill. Then they headed home, arriving just after
Hedrick.

While the official records only credited the flight with two kills (one
each to Schanuel and Cunningham) and five 'damaged', the battle removed
Hedrick's remaining skepticism about the Corsair. This had been the
first real test of the F4U in a maximum combat situation, and it made a
believer out of Hedrick. He had experienced first-hand how the Corsair
outclassed the Zero in all fighting qualities except maneuverability.

Three days later VF-17 went up to fly cover on a carrier Task Group
attacking Rabaul. After the carriers launched their strike planes,
Hedrick's flight landed on Essex, while Blackburn's landed on Bunker
Hill. Taking off again in the afternoon, they got involved in a
confusing dogfight with many Japanese. Hedrick suddenly noticed a plane
coming out of a cloud, crossing in front of him. He fired a deflection
shot, but ceased firing immediately when he recognized his target as a
Corsair.
The
victimized pilot turned out to be the CO, Tom Blackburn, who described
the event in his book, The
Jolly Rogers:

Anguish and concern written all over his face Rog Hedrick
pulled up beside me to the left. After closely inspecting Big Hog, Rog
shook his head and passed a questioning thumbs-up signal - was I okay?
To my right Mills Schanuel did much the same, as I rapidly actuated
various controls and scanned the gauges to check for damage. All
apparently was okay.

On landing back at Ondongo, Blackburn's only complaint was that
Hedrick was a lousy shot. Hedrick also managed to down an enemy plane
this day.

November 17 - While on CAP over Empress Augusta Bay, Hedrick's
eight-plane flight downed 10 Jap planes (1 for Hedrick personally), but
at the cost of Brad Barker, who just disappeared during the
dogfighting.

Escorting some SBD's on a Rabaul raid on Jan. 26, 1944,
Hedrick downed a Zero just as it was setting up to hit the dive
bombers.

He led the first Roving High Cover
(RHC) mission for the Jolly Rogers on Jan. 28. Leading six planes at
32,000, he spotted a dozen Zeros about to attack the standard
bomber/fighter escort group. On his first three passes most of his guns
jammed. After Paul Cordray cleared his tail, he
got all six guns working and dived onto a lone Zero at low altitude. He
flamed it, the pilot bailed out, and Hedrick strafed the chute. (I
thought we wore the white hats. - SS) Cordray then dived onto a
second Zero and sent it down. Hedrick's third RHC pair also scored.
Four kills for the RHC team and a thoroughly disorganized Japanese
defense.

He shot down one on Jan. 30 and three on February 18, making nine
that he scored with VF-17, which broke up in April, 1944.

Roger Hedrick later commanded VF-84 on Bunker Hill. Their
primary mission was to stop the kamikazes. He destroyed a Zero and 2
Franks on February 25, 1945, to bring his final score to 12
confirmed and 4 damaged. But on May 11, 1945, a kamikaze got
through, hitting the carrier right below the island, killing most of
the pilots in the ready room. Hedrick survived, but that was the end of
Bunker Hill's combat tour. Another Navy Squadron, also based on Bunker
Hill, was numbered VF-17, but it was a wholly new outfit, unrelated
to Blackburn, Hedrick, Kepford, et al.

After the war, Hedrick stayed in the Navy, rising to the rank of
Rear Admiral.